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Chiswick (1981) wrote:
"The apparent high level of psychiatric morbidity, particularly
of schizophrenia, in matricidal killers cannot be ignored
but must be put in context. Firstly, even if all matricides in
England were committed by schizophrenics there would be
only a dozen or so such cases each year. Moreover, thousands
of schizophrenic sons live in peace with their mothers, neither
assaulting nor killing them; and the contribution made by
schizophrenics to the homicide rate in general is insignificant.
Secondly, family murder does not occur in a vacuum.
It is a complex interaction of individual characteristics,
precipitation by the victim, and environmental chance.
Victims do not give interviews, and the inevitable medicolegal
preoccupation with the psychopathology of the offender has
hampered psychiatric knowledge of these often strange crimes.
An association does appear to exist between matricide and
schizophrenia, but how far the relation is causative remains
unknown; simply allocating the diagnosis of schizophrenia to
an individual is an incomplete and unsatisfactory explanation
for his crime. The relation of schizophrenia to matricide, as
distinct from other forms of family murder, might owe more
to opportunity than psychodynamics. The socially disabling
effects of the disease reduce the likelihood of marriage and
prolong dependency on parents."